After four songs and 15 minutes of performing at the Times Union Center on Saturday night, Paul McCartney doffed his electric-blue blazer and said with the gentle, throwaway humor of a veteran performer, "That will be the only wardrobe change of the evening."

The sold-out crowd of 13,500, who snapped up every available ticket in 28 minutes, hollered and applauded. The noise was immense but not unprecedented in the arena; absent were the shrieks and sobs and faces clasped in the helpless abandon of young fandom — the kind that greeted the Beatles in 1964 and today is aimed at whoever happens to inspire it, however fleetingly, in preteen girls.

After 50 years as one of the most famous people in the world, McCartney hasn't been that kind of artist in decades. He inspires adoration if not ecstasy, a mature and lasting appreciation for much of a lifetime's worth of soundtrack.

"There's a vibe in the building that we've never felt; the whole staff agrees," said Bob Belber, the arena's general manager. "This is definitely the biggest show in our history."

The tractor-trailer armada for McCartney's "Out There!" Tour, which started its American leg in Albany and runs through October, loaded stage, lighting and sound equipment into the arena on Thursday. Friday's rehearsal ran for three hours, with McCartney participating for the duration, Belber said. Saturday's concert ran almost as long. Tour officials projected the arena would be vacant by 5 a.m. Sunday, the convoy on its way to Pittsburgh for a Monday concert.

Prior to the show, Kevin Votto, of West Haven, Conn., played Beatles tunes on a piano in the arena's atrium that is part of the "Play Me, I'm Yours" exhibit. Fans streaming into the arena stopped to watch and sing along, a microcosm of what would happen inside two hours later.

Joan Walton, who like the Beatles hails from Liverpool, England, and who saw the Fab Four at that city's Cavern Club in their earliest days, traveled to the concert from Niagara Falls, Canada. She was with her daughter Kelly Moon and 10-year-old grandson Joshua. Another Canadian fan at the Times Union Center, Jessica Dionne, has a tattoo of McCartney's signature on her arm. She said it immortalizes the signature he scrawled on the arm when she jumped onstage with him during a 2010 concert in her hometown.

Sharon Howard and her husband, Bruce, of Rutland, Vt., received tickets to the concert as a gift from their three daughters. "This is the ultimate — a 10 out of 10 on the excitement scale," said Sharon Howard. She added, indicating her husband with a nod, "We went to see (Bob) Dylan. That was for him. This is for me."

Although the crowd appeared to skew toward baby boomers more than any other single demographic, attendees seen in passing suggested an age range as broad as McCartney's age. (He turned 72 two weeks ago.) And fans were as diverse as Ethan Ullman, an early 20-something comedian who attended with Jeff "the Drunk" Curro, a local man who is a recurring character on Howard Stern's radio show, and Capital Region financial analyst Steven Bouchey, who attended with his wife, Sue. Said Sue Bouchey, noting that neither had previously seen McCartney, "Mama said to Daddy, 'I want to go.' And here we are."